Few of you will ever understand what Bethel was like in the 1970's.
You just had to be there to fully appreciate the negative,
harsh sweatshop atmosphere of the place.
The lying bastards who ran the place knew they had slaves
they could abuse and mistreat. It wasn't just the shame of
not making your four years that drove brothers to stay at
Bethel - some even after losing all faith in God or the Watchtower!
During the 70's, the draft was on and getting a deferment
was very difficult for many brothers, especially in conservative
areas. If you left, "before your four years" were up, they refused
to let you regular pioneer - which meant that the Society put
you in jeopardy for a prison sentence - for draft evasion
(unless you wanted to risk dying in Vietnam).
Years at Bethel took an emotional toll on me. After I left,
I still had dreams about waking up there - with prison bars
on the windows. I guess I continued "in the truth" by putting
it all out of my mind. I can't tell you how awful it was it for
me and countless other brothers who hated waking up every
morning in that place - the depression, the nervous breakdowns,
and the brothers who cranked out millions of books - for an
organization they despised. Ask veterans of that era about
how Bethelites would commonly reply to "how long you 'been here?"
with answers that sounded like a prison sentence - "two years,
three months, fourteen days ...." - it really used to irritate
Knorr!
When I post on this board, perhaps in obsession, I can feel
the horror of those years compelling me - even thou they are
long past.
The final lesson? Never, never, never, never, never, never,
never, never, never, never place your life and wellbeing
in the control of the Watchtower Society.
never
metatron